About My Christmas

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Both -- I prefer wrapping paper, but when a gift is an odd shape there is nothing better than wrapping it with a bit of tissue paper & putting it into a bag.

2. Real tree or artificial?
Both -- real in the living room & artificial in the family room.

3. When do you put your tree up?
The artificial goes up the Monday after Thanksgiving & the real usually goes up the first weekend in December.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Real one comes down sometime shortly after New Year's Day. The artificial is taken down by January 10.

5. Do you like egg nog?
NO!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
I was a teen, but the best gift would have to be the HUGE box of quilt pieces cut out of vintage fabrics & the quilt book my mom found with a book that had a quilt pattern that could use those pieces.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes, it's the Jim Shore set & I love it!

8. Hardest person to buy for?
Definitely my mother-in-law.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
My Mom, Bob & Olivia

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail, but I do send a few e-cards.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I'm going to invoke my Fifth Amendment Right on this one! ;)

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
Nester, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Unless sending it to Goodwill counts as recycling, I have never recycled a gift.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Cookies!!

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Clear lights on both trees.

16. Favorite Christmas song?
O, Holy Night

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
We go to my parents on Christmas Day. Mom's for an early lunch & Dad's for dinner/dessert. When Bob's parents lived in town we spent Christmas Eve with them.

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Yes -- Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and the most famous reindeer of all Rudolph. (My least favorite Christmas song, by the way)

19. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
We open on Christmas morning, but will be starting a new tradition this year. I discovered it while reading traditions of many bloggers last year. We each will open one gift on Christmas Eve -- it will be new jammies to wear so we can be pretty in our new jammies for Christmas Morning pictures. :)

20. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Political Incorrectness Alert: That the word Christmas is being replaced by Holiday for nearly every Christmas tradition there is ie trees, lights, decorations, parties, etc.

21. Favorite ornament on the tree?
I would say right now it is the one I bought at the Holiday Folk Fair the day I ran in the 5K last month.

22. Favorite thing to eat for Christmas dinner?
Cookies -- oh wait, that says dinner...LOL! It depends if the menu has ham or turkey. If the menu calls for ham, then it is the cheesy potatoes. If the menu calls for turkey, it's the stuffing! YUM-O!

23. Do you decorate the outside of your house?
We usually do, but the cold and snow hit us much earlier and harder this year than usual so we never got them up.

24. Does Santa wrap his gifts or leave them upwrapped?
Santa wraps, but in different paper than I do! :)

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
To spend quality time with my family & friends. My dad's heart attack this year hit me really hard. Harder than I thought, I guess. I have had a hard time being excited about the preparations for Christmas Day. The gifts, the decorations, etc all go away, but relationships with those we love are what's really important. (I don't mean for that to sound preachy, sappy, cliche. That is honestly how I have felt about Christmas this year.)

Now tell me about your Christmas! If you are so inclined, copy & paste this and replace my answers with yours! If you do play along, let me know so I can stop by and read about your Christmas traditions, likes, dislikes, hopes, etc.